Narrative:
SITUATION BEFORE THE INITIATIVE BEGAN
Ten per cent of the world's population, or 650 million people, live with a disability and they have been described as the poorest of the poor. Eighty percent of the world’s population of people with disabilities live in developing countries, most of which do not have accessibility standards or building codes.
ESTABLISHMENT OF PRIORITIES
The main priority was to undertake global research of accessibility standards. Countries selected for the research included both developing and developed countries. A further priority was geographic representation with countries from Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Australia and North and South America. Fifty percent of the people hired to conduct the research and analysis have a disability, and fifty percent of them are woman. To further ensure a global
perspective, an international expert panel was invited to select the technical specifications and examples of best practices in universal design.
FORMULATION OF OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES
The main objectives were to increase the understanding of universal design and accessibility and to build a global knowledge base by providing a compendium of technical specifications and examples of best practices, thus impacting the lives of people with disabilities who face discrimination and obstacles in their everyday lives. The strategies were initiated by Betty Dion, President of GAATES who recognized the need for international information on accessibility. By building an International partnership and gathering the comparative technical data and examples of best practices the document could be used by cities, municipalities, developers, code developers and people with disabilities themselves.
MOBILISATION OF RESOURCES
An international partnership was developed to provide financial support. The Canadian donors were coordinated by the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) which included Treasury Board of Canada (TB), (responsible for accessibility of federal buildings), Human Resources and Social Development Canada – Office for Disability Issues (ODI), and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). Betty Dion, President of GAATES also invited both the Swedish Agency for Disability Policy and the National Disability Authority of Ireland to collaborate because of their work and research in the field of accessibility of the built environment.
Technical resources were recruited by Betty Dion who invited the world’s experts in accessible design to participate in an Expert Panel. The panel included an architect from the United Nations based in Lebanon, a fire evacuation expert, two architects from Latin America, an accessibility expert from Sweden and an engineer from Canada. The Expert Panel reviewed the universal design technical specifications and selected the examples of best practices.
The men and women who gathered the information built the database and conducted the analysis included people with disabilities and others from Canada, Mexico, and Sweden. The resources were managed by Betty Dion.
PROCESS
Some of the initial challenges included building the partnership of donors and assembling the international partnership. The Human Rights Commission agreed to coordinate the Canadian donors. In addition, difficulties occurred in obtaining the relevant building code or accessibility standards; as firstly, it was difficult to ascertain if there was an accessibility standard in existence, and secondly, to confirm that it was a legally binding standard referenced by a building code. In some cases, guidelines existed but were not implemented. Only mandated technical specifications were included in the research.
Given the great range in technical specifications found throughout the world, an expert panel was formed to select the best practices in universal design. The panel consisted of internationally known experts in the universal design field and persons with disabilities.
An additional challenge was the international promotion of the document. A comprehensive global publicity campaign was required to ensure that the objectives were achieved. A global advertising strategy was developed which included web based promotions and presentations at the World Urban Forum in Vancouver, a presentation during the formulation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in New York, the Access Abu Dhabi conference, the Man and Environment Conference in Serbia and presentations at the World Bank and numerous presentations in Canada.
The benchmark for determining success of the best practices document has been the wide global distribution. Over 5000 copies of the International Best Practices in Universal Design: A Global Review have been distributed. The English version has had 4 printings, and the document has been produced in French and in DAISY format for people who are blind. A Spanish translation has been produced in Latin America by CONAPRED (a human rights organization) in collaboration with an organization of people with disabilities. An Arabic version was translated by GAATES and printed by the Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services. A Serbian version was translated by Living Upright in Novi Sad.
RESULTS ACHIEVED
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2006 and entered into force 30 days later
The UN Convention makes specific reference (Article 9) to the need to develop, implement and monitor accessibility standards for the built environment. To date over 129 countries have signed the convention.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]During the negotiations for the drafting of the Convention the best practices document was used to inform the participants, including organizations of people with disabilities.
In countries with no accessibility standard, the document has been used for code development, leading to improved institutional capacity at both national and local levels. This also results in a change in behaviour towards people with disability, a reduction in systemic discrimination, providing greater opportunity for social equality.
The document has also been used for renovations and upgrading the urban environment. The Mexican General Assembly used the document to guide renovations to the parliament buildings and an accessible school was built in Burundi, allowing children with disabilities to attend school.
The Hong Kong Building Code Committee and other code officials used the comparison document to guide them in their changes. Similarly, the document was used by committee members in the development of the ISO Technical Committee TC59/SC16.
Ultimately the biggest impact of the best practices document is how it has changed the lives of people with disabilities and older persons around the world who can now participate in their communities.
SUSTAINABILITY
Accessibility is an integral component of a sustainable environment. By removing systemic barriers, a built environment that is accessible can help ensure gender equity, social inclusion and equality, thereby enabling people with disabilities and older persons to have greater social and economic mobility. An accessible built environment ensures a more effective use of human and financial resources, at both the macro and micro levels of the socio-economic realm.
Implementing a sustainable environment that includes accessibility as a key component ensures that all members of a community are able to use and therefore benefit from all aspects of society. People with disabilities are thus able to attend school, participate in recreational opportunities, be gainfully employed and be contributing members of society.
International human rights organizations who are charged to protect people with disabilities from discrimination and promote equality have embraced the best practices document as it provides a tangible tool to ensure access to schools, hospitals, transportation facilities, work places and government facilities. Presentations at the National Human Rights Forum, the Saudi Human Rights Commission and the Canadian Human Rights Commission provided opportunities to highlight the benefits of the study.
LESSONS LEARNED
The most surprising lesson learned was the incredible demand for the best practices document. Over 5000 copies of the study were distributed worldwide and we expect the Spanish and Arabic version to still see an increase in demand as they have more recently become available. Accompanying these production numbers, of course, are greater costs for printing and distribution.We were not aware of other similar initiatives so were not able to learn from them.
Presently people manually search the document to find information on specific technical features (such as the clear width of the door). To make the next document more useful and useable, it is proposed that the data be searchable (i.e. people can request information on the clear width of doors in, for instance, Latin America). These lessons learned or recommendations for improvements are planned for the next version.
Another lesson learned was the huge time and energy needed to promote the publication, to let people know it was available in a variety of alternate formats. A larger budget for promotions is anticipated and a more complex strategy required to ensure that all stakeholders are made aware of the next Best Practices in Universal Design study.
TRANSFERS
The universal design best practices document benefited from good timing (in conjunction with the drafting of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) and previous experience in the producing of information on universal design and accessibility. We were able to anticipate that there would be a critical demand for information on accessible design specifications.
GAATES is planning on replicating the project on an even grander scale through the future development of a larger more comprehensive research project with a greater number of countries and a broader range of technical data. This will make the document a great deal bigger and more expensive to print so it is proposed that we develop an online database that will be searchable based on technical data, geographic regions and other parameters yet to be determined. The project will also include more countries, and consider a greater number of design elements, including children’s play and recreation areas, and more coverage of elements such as public rights of way, outdoor recreation areas, and landscape considerations.
In addition, GAATES is planning on initiating a similar project on accessible housing, comparing housing standards from around the world. Best practices in universal design for housing, including visitable housing, flex housing and lifetime homes. This information will be of interest to a different audience, those more involved in the development of housing, housing building codes and those involved in housing for the aging population.
